From Paris to Sydney for the love of gemstones…

My name is Annaïg (before you ask it’s a somewhat unusual name from Brittany where I come from and taken from the old “Breton” language meaning little Anna which is a bit easier to remember).

My love affair with jewellery started when my grand mother took me to a jewellery exhibition showing collections by Cartier, Van Cleef and Arpels, Boucheron…

When we came back home I told my Mum I wanted to make crowns for the kings and queens. As you can see the idea stuck! I did my gem-cutting apprenticeship in Paris working for all those prestigious companies that inspired me years ago. While I haven’t worked on any crown (yet) I did work on several pieces worn by a few royal family members around the world and that’s rather nice!

I established my gem-cutting business in 2002 in the heart of Sydney and started to make my own jewellery shortly after. I began making jewellery to wear myself as I couldn’t find anything I liked enough to buy. Friends started to ask me to make pieces for them as well as for presents and it grew from there.

For me jewellery is an emotional thing and involves all my senses. It catches the eye, draws the hand to touch and sometimes it will take your breath away before capturing your heart.

I use my 30 years experience to carefully select gemstones and pearls that I use to create elegant and understated designs. I like my gemstones to be the hero of my jewellery. As a gem-cutter I am not limited with a standard size or given shape of a gemstone which gives me a lot of flexibility and options to truly create unique pieces. I only use genuine material (gemstones, pearls, sterling silver and gold) sourced from legitimate suppliers based here in Australia. Whenever possible I use recycled sterling silver and gold (all the bits and pieces left over from production are cleaned, refined then melted to give me fresh new metal!)

I am one of the lucky few doing what I love to do every day. I hope you enjoy wearing my jewellery as much as I did creating it for you!

Are you curious about how I do my gem-cutting? This is a video taken in my workshop while repairing a pink tourmaline.